Good Morning Mission!

Well, The Guardian has gotten into the Google bus bustle, decrying the lack of subtlety.

In a metropolitan area known for its flamboyant political theatre, its anarchist streak and a tendency for liberals to turn on each other as much as their political enemies, the point has not always been made with the greatest subtlety.

“You are not innocent victims,” one flyer directed at tech workers said. “You live your comfortable lives surrounded by poverty, homelessness and death, seemingly oblivious to everything around you, lost in the big bucks and success.”

9:30 a.m. Assessment Appeals Board, Room 406, City Hall. Meets to consider appeals on an assessed value. No addresses in the Mission appear, but there is an interesting one in Noe Valley where the owner of 4128 24th Street would like the assessed value to be reduced from $2.4 million to $1.3 million. It seems like it sold in August, 2013 for $2.6 million.

Share this:

Related

19 Comments

It’s worth mentioning that the UK Guardian newspaper is a notoriously left-wing paper whose views are not mainstream even in that much more socialist nation.

While asking people if something should be done about the “wealth gap” (itself a prejudicial phrase) is leading the witness. You might as well ask people if they’d like free money.

The wealth gap increases if a few individuals are very successful, but that tells you nothing about whether the rest of the population is paid appropriately according to the value they generate, which is the much more important question..

They quote the study which revealed that over a third of tech workers would move closer to work without tech buses. I venture that number is significantly higher If you factor in the people who think they would still want to live in the city but underestimate how traffic commutes wear you down and just how inconvenient it is (and these people are naturally inclined to convenience).

The argument about buses cutting emissions is bogus. Those emissions are generated in the first place by people moving far away from work.

I think every major media outlet has had an article on the tech boom pains theme, and all of them highlight inequality, including the Economist.

There is no escaping reality, no matter how many people move to Oakland and beyond, class conflict is here in full force.

Your comments provide a list of groups that you hate. Some examples: tenants in rent-controlled apartments, “unruly” youth, poor people, homeless people, artists, Rainbow Grocery workers. Those are just from the top of my head.

Lies. I do not hate any of those groups. I simply think that they have not been well served by the political interests that claim to be helping them. And that envy-fueled class warfare is not a reasonable way for the city to progress and change.

Your words speak for themselves. Your charge of envy at people who view the world differently from you is speculative. The assumptions underlying your ignorance that class differences lead to class conflicts are fantasy-based denials.

You have no evidence that the people you criticize are envious. None. If you have it, share it. Find a quote from someone that reads, “I am opposed to the involuntary displacement of Mission District residents because I want to be richer.” Good luck. You are speculating about motivations that you cannot understand because of your obtuseness.

At least you are consistent by raising a new issue, greed vs. envy, when you can’t back up your claims with evidence. Your discussions about investment strategies with some of your idle rich counterparts here would support the view that your strongest motivation in life is the pursuit of money and wealth. You cannot conceive that plenty of people do not share that prime motivation. To you, they are just “envious” of your hard work living off other people’s wages.

Again, you seem happy to talk about my “greed” but you deny that your whines about successful tech employees are about envy. That’s a double standard. Either both greed and envy are factors, or neither are.

And yes, many Americans aspire to wealth. That can hardly be a surprise to you, given that the US is often held up as the world’s leading exponent of capitalism.

People here like money.and often come here for the American dream. We and they understand that mobility is both the cause and the effect of economic growth and success. A certain level of turnover lubricates the economic vitality that helps build our prosperity.

I’m done with this discussion until you provide evidence backing up your claim that greed is the motivation of the successful people twhom you decry. Assumptions and circular reasoning are insufficient.

I never claimed “greed.” You assumed that as a diversionary tactic. I asserted that money and wealth are your prime motivations and you basically agreed with your defense of American capitalism aspirations to wealth.

Wrong, I was criticizing the idea that the shuttles should be stopped because of the belief that tech workers would then leave the city. That is an overt attempt at the cleansing of an entire class of city residents based on prejudice against their line of work.

Perhaps class hatred is a better description than envy but, either way, it is deplorable that so -called liberals would seek such a displacement.

Tree of Life is a group exhibition that celebrates the rich cultural diversity and assorted art styles found at Creativity Explored. The title of the show references the universal image of the “Tree of Life,” which manifests in folklore, mythology, and world religions. The “Tree of Life” is globally known by many different names, for example, The Cosmic Tree, The Holy Tree, Ydryssil, the Bhodi Tree, and The Tree of...